by hidden europe

Is cutting public transport links in rural areas and across its borders really the right way for Croatia to gear up to join the European Union this summer? We look at how the pieties of the market are playing havoc with rail services in the north Balkan region.

article summary —

By the end of the nineteenth-century, it was railways more than anything else that held the Austro-Hungarian Empire together. The double-headed eagle was the icon of Habsburg dominion but, at an everyday level, state institutions like the railways and the postal service united the Habsburg territories. Steam trains brought together the ‘family of many nations’ — supporting the illusion that the mountain folk of western Austria really might have something in common with the herdsmen of Hungary’s eastern plains.

The empire disappeared after the First World War, but its railways survived. Across a great swathe of central Europe and the northern Balkans, magnificent train stations and accompanying railway infrastructure remind visitors today that this was once Habsburg territory. From Lviv (Ukraine) to Ljubljana (Slovenia), from Zakopane (Poland) to Zagreb (Croatia), you will find stations that still hint of Habsburg style.

But the erstwhile empire’s railways are being decimated. Croatia is gearing up to join the European Union (EU) this summer, and the country has been forced to capitulate to the pieties of the market.

This is just an excerpt. If you are a subscriber to hidden europe magazine, you can log in to read the full text online. Of course you can also read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 39.

About the authors

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers. They delight in discovering the exotic in the everyday.

Just think how good it would be if you could board a train in Milan and wake up next morning in Manchester. Forty years ago this spring, civil servants in London and European rail planners were sketching out the first tentative ideas for just such ...

The European Union has programmes to encourage sustainable transport initiatives and to promote links between communities that are separated by frontiers. Yet every year more cross-border rail links close. We take a look at the issues preventing ...

Had the Balkan region narrow-gauge rail network survived, it would surely today be a cherished asset in promoting tourism over a wide region - in much the same way as the narrow-gauge Rhaetian Railway network has been important in attracting ...